152 SERVIA, AUSTRIA, TURKEY, AND RUSSIA* 



the enemy of liberty, they were undaunted by danger, and not afraid 

 to perish, for 



"Their bosoms burn'd anew, 

 With thy unquenched beam, Lost Liberty."* 



Surrounded on every hand by their sullen and hereditary foes, the 

 fanatical and unrelenting enemy of liberty, the Government of 

 Turkey, whose military forces occupied all the fortresses and fortified 

 towns in Servia, where they had abundant supplies of war material, 

 the Servians were driven from every vantage ground, and compelled 

 to retreat into the recesses of the mountains, or to seek shelter 

 in the primeval forests, without supplies, almost without arms and 

 ammunitions of war, for it was said, that their artillery, instead of 

 being iron or steel, were made of wood, hollowed out of the trunks 

 of trees, with which they waged the unequal struggle in the defence 

 of their country's freedom. 



The oppression exercised by the Turks had filled the most in- 

 accessible parts of the country with desperate men, and they con- 

 ceived the design of delivering their country under a chieftain named 

 George Petrovics, or, according to the Turkish expression, Kara- 

 Georges, or supreme leader of the people ; and in 1806 10,000 

 peasants under his command totally defeated the armies of Turkey 

 at Deligrad, Mishar, and eventually Belgrade fell before their on- 

 slaughts; and thus, after an heroic struggle of eight years, Kara- 

 Georges, in 181 2, succeeded in achieving the independence of his 

 country, and secured the emancipation from Turkey of the greater 

 part of the present Kingdom of Servia, which was confirmed by the 

 Treaty of Bucharest in 181 2. 



Kara-Georges was not born in the purple, but belonged to that 

 class who are born to win. He was a peasant, and he became a 

 hero, by his native valour and indomitable will ; and when he died 

 his mantle fell on Milosh, and to these men Servia owes the inde- 

 pendence of her people and kingdom. 



Unfortunately, owing to the campaign of Napoleon I. against 

 Russia, in 1 81 2, their freedom, so dearly won, was lost for a brief inter- 

 val; for at that time Russia was the only Christian Power favourable to 

 Servia, and her reverses from the aggressions of France ' enabled the 

 Turks to reconquer the country. The manner in which this was 

 accomplished is a remarkable episode in history, an illustration of 

 the duplicity and crafty policy of an unscrupulous diplomacy, worthy 

 only of Themistocles, as the sequel shows. 



Napoleon urged Turkey to invade Russia from the south, whilst he 



• Byron. 



